Come and see Mike Seymour talk about the presentation he gave @ SIGGRAPH 2017 in Los Angeles earlier this year.

Producing a digital human in CG has been the ‘Manhattan’ project of computer graphics, it is both extremely difficult and has wide ranging implications both commercially and ethically. Digital Actors, Agents and Avatars are all very hot topics, but what few in the industry anticipated is how rapidly this would move from the issue of rendering a high quality human, to being able to do so in real time. Come and see MEETMIKE at ACM Siggraph ANZgraph were Mike Seymour will explain the project first shown that SIGGRAPH 2017 in LA that aimed to not only produce a realistic human but to do so at 90 frames a second in stereo in VR. Beyond realtime at even 30 fps (30 milliseconds), this International team has to render each frame in just 9 Miliseconds. To produce such fast results, the team deployed Deep Learning AI for a markerless facial tracker and solver, and used a custom build of Epic Games UE4.

In this worldwide first, each day of the SIGGRAPH show digital Mike met digital versions of industry legends and leading researchers from around the world. People such as Dr Paul Debevec, Tim Sweeney, Oscar Winners Ben Grossman (Magnopus) and Wayne Stables (Weta) and leading researchers from places such as PIXAR’s Christophe Hery, Glenn Derry (Fox).
Together they met and conducted interviews in “Sydney” via virtual reality which was watched either in VR or on a giant screen.

This project is a key part of a new research project into virtual humans as Actors, Agents and Avatars. The ANZGraph session will provide valuable data and insights for taking digital humans research to the next level, and share lessons learnt from the collaboration of R&D teams from around the world. MEET MIKE researchers span four continents, three universities and six companies including Epic Games, 3Lateral, Cubic Motion, Loom.ai and the Wikihuman global research project. The project aimed to explore best of class scanning, rigging and real-time rendering. Please note that this project aims to give away nearly all the data for non-commercial use and is a non-profit research effort.
(As featured on ABC TV’s Catalyst program).

Cost: Free for Sydney ACM SIGGRAPH members in good financial standing. $5 cover charge for guests and non-members.

(Attendees can sign up as a new member on the night. Annual Membership fees are $50 for professionals and $25 for students)

Probably best known for the annual SIGGRAPH International conference on computer graphics for film, televisions and new media industries, ACM SIGGRAPH also puts on a variety of programs year-round and worldwide to benefit the SIGGRAPH community. The event listed above is hosted by our local chapter and is free for all chapter members.

“Fractal Sets for Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2” with Miles Green and Matt Ebb.

Miles Green FX Department Supervisor, Animal Logic Australia. Miles has worked at Animal Logic for 12 years along and prior to that worked at RSP and Framestore UK. Previously he was a lecturer and demonstrator at the National Center for Computer Animation (NCCA) at Bournemouth University, UK.

Matt Ebb: with a background in design, Matt loves the abstract, weird and wonderful side of visual effects, using procedural tools to solve difficult creative problems. Having over a decade’s experience in visual effects and animation across Sydney, London and Amsterdam, Matt has most recently worked as an FX Lead at Animal Logic, where he worked on films including Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Allegiant, The Lego Movie, and Prometheus

Cost: Free for Sydney ACM SIGGRAPH members in good financial standing. $5 cover charge for guests and non-members.

(Attendees can sign up as a new member on the night. Annual Membership fees are $50 for professionals and $25 for students)

Probably best known for the annual SIGGRAPH International conference on computer graphics for film, televisions and new media industries, ACM SIGGRAPH also puts on a variety of programs year-round and worldwide to benefit the SIGGRAPH community. The event listed above is hosted by our local chapter and is free for all chapter members.

Peter has returned to Australia after working in Hungary for Digic Pictures creating leading work on games cinematics, VFX and feature animation. Now at Rotor, he will talk about his career as an artist and the experience of working overseas and returning to Australia.

Cost: Free for Sydney ACM SIGGRAPH members in good financial standing. $5 cover charge for guests and non-members.

(Attendees can sign up as a new member on the night. Annual Membership fees are $50 for professionals and $25 for students)

Probably best known for the annual SIGGRAPH International conference on computer graphics for film, televisions and new media industries, ACM SIGGRAPH also puts on a variety of programs year-round and worldwide to benefit the SIGGRAPH community. The event listed above is hosted by our local chapter and is free for all chapter members.

Probably best known for the annual SIGGRAPH International conference on computer graphics for film, televisions and new media industries, ACM SIGGRAPH also puts on a variety of programs year-round and worldwide to benefit the SIGGRAPH community. The event listed above is hosted by our local chapter and is free for all chapter members.

Lily Dell was raised in Southern California, where her father worked at Disneyland as a caricature artist. A keen art student from an early age, Lily began her drawing career by following in his footsteps. The skills and discipline of drawing caricatures and portraits for hours on end was an excellent foundation for transition to animation, starting in London as an inbetweener for shadow mattes on the Disney film Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Lily, with her husband and two children, moved to New Zealand, where her animation career continued to evolve. For a few years she was a partner and director in a small animation studio, contracting to Disney Toons in California.

In 2003, Lily moved to Sydney to work as an animator at Disney Toons Australia. She finished as Character Lead on their final project,Cinderella III, when the studio closed in 2006. Since then, a variety of animation and illustration freelance contracts keep her going, and for the last five years she has also been teaching foundation drawing and design skills in animation courses at Design Centre Enmore and UTS.

Cost: Free for Sydney ACM SIGGRAPH members in good financial standing. $5 cover charge for guests and non-members.

(Attendees can sign up as a new member on the night. Annual Membership fees are $50 for professionals and $25 for students)

Probably best known for the annual SIGGRAPH International conference on computer graphics for film, televisions and new media industries, ACM SIGGRAPH also puts on a variety of programs year-round and worldwide to benefit the SIGGRAPH community. The event listed above is hosted by our local chapter and is free for all chapter members.

Alt is a state­of-the-art post­production studio specializing in visual effects and design for film and television. Alt has won international awards from Cannes Lions, Adfest, Mobius, CLIO, London International and D&AD. Other achievements include NextStage, Spikes Asia, AWARD Awards, ADSTAR, Cresta and EPICA. Alt.vfx won Best VFX Studio in Asia-Pacific and Africa at the Ciclope International Festival of Craft in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Alt.vfx were honoured to be the Queensland Small Business of the Year 2014 by the Queensland Trade and Investment Corporation, received the Ethnic Business Award for a small business in 2015, Queensland Small to Medium Sized Exporter of the Year 2013, Supreme Exporter of the Year 2013 as well as recently receiving the Creative Industries Award at the Queensland and National Export Awards in 2015.

Alt’s studios in Brisbane and Sydney service a growing number of local and international clients including advertising agencies, production houses, government agencies, large corporates and local businesses. The team at Alt love what they do, and they do it very well.

Cost: Free for Sydney ACM SIGGRAPH members in good financial standing. $5 cover charge for guests and non-members.

(Attendees can sign up as a new member on the night. Annual Membership fees are $50 for professionals and $25 for students)

Probably best known for the annual SIGGRAPH International conference on computer graphics for film, televisions and new media industries, ACM SIGGRAPH also puts on a variety of programs year-round and worldwide to benefit the SIGGRAPH community. The event listed above is hosted by our local chapter and is free for all chapter members.

Having worked as a Technical Director at Animal Logic and CG Supervisor with Method Studios Australia, Anshul is now working with pic4 as they gear up for feature film and VR projects.

Anshul currently heads the VFX & VR department at pic4 in Sydney and brings over 10 years of VFX experience working across large production pipelines at world class facilities like Framestore, Animal Logic, Iloura & Method Studios. Prior to joining pic4 he was responsible for leading the lighting/look development pipeline at Iloura Sydney & also implementing the entire shotgun production pipeline at Method Studios, Sydney as a CG supervisor. Anshul is extremely process driven and strongly believes that efficient production systems have a key role to play in delivering high quality work across facilities of all sizes.

Cost: Free for Sydney ACM SIGGRAPH members in good financial standing. $5 cover charge for guests and non-members.

(Attendees can sign up as a new member on the night. Annual Membership fees are $50 for professionals and $25 for students)

Probably best known for the annual SIGGRAPH International conference on computer graphics for film, televisions and new media industries, ACM SIGGRAPH also puts on a variety of programs year-round and worldwide to benefit the SIGGRAPH community. The event listed above is hosted by our local chapter and is free for all chapter members.

Simon Rippingale is a Sydney-based director and writer with a background in animation and illustration. Most recently, Simon directed A Cautionary Tail, an animated short film starring Cate Blanchett, Barry Otto and David Wenham, which won the won the 2014 AACTA award for best short animation. A Cautionary Tail also won the Jury award at the Austin Film Festival Jury Award, Best Animation at The Blue Mountains Film Festival and was a finalist in the Dendy Awards at the 2013 Sydney Film Festival. Other festival screenings include, Flickerfest, Rhode Island, Hamptons, Edinburough, Palm Springs, LA shorts amongst other festivals.

Simon also been nominated for an AFI award for Visual Effects for the animation on Unfolding Florence: The Many Lives of Florence Broadhurst, directed by Gillian Armstrong, which screened in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Simon’s work as an Animation director on a number of other films, ebooks and documentaries including Silver Award at the 2015 App design Awards, nomination for Best Documentary at the 2011 IF Awards. Simon has directed music videos for numerous Australian recording artists such as Thirsty Merc, Guy Sebastien, Old Man River, Gelbison, Bob Evans and Children Collide – and as a freelance illustrator he has contributed to publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Herald Sun, The Financial Review and The Diplomat.

Simon is currently in development with Screen Australia on a feature animation film with writer Erica Harrison and Producer Martha Coleman.

Cost: Free for Sydney ACM SIGGRAPH members in good financial standing. $5 cover charge for guests and non-members.

(Attendees can sign up as a new member on the night. Annual Membership fees are $50 for professionals and $25 for students)

Probably best known for the annual SIGGRAPH International conference on computer graphics for film, televisions and new media industries, ACM SIGGRAPH also puts on a variety of programs year-round and worldwide to benefit the SIGGRAPH community. The event listed above is hosted by our local chapter and is free for all chapter members.

Shilo McClean is the Head of the UTS Animal Logic Academy and Chair of Sydney ACM Siggraph (Professional Chapter). She is the author of the books: Digital Storytelling – the narrative power of VFX in film and Digital Playing Fields – new rulz for film, art and performance.

Cost: Free for Sydney ACM SIGGRAPH members in good financial standing. $5 cover charge for guests and non-members.

(Attendees can sign up as a new member on the night. Annual Membership fees are $50 for professionals and $25 for students)

Probably best known for the annual SIGGRAPH International conference on computer graphics for film, televisions and new media industries, ACM SIGGRAPH also puts on a variety of programs year-round and worldwide to benefit the SIGGRAPH community. The event listed above is hosted by our local chapter and is free for all chapter members.

Probably best known for the annual SIGGRAPH International conference on computer graphics for film, televisions and new media industries, ACM SIGGRAPH also puts on a variety of programs year-round and worldwide to benefit the SIGGRAPH community. The event listed above is hosted by our local chapter and is free for all chapter members.